(Newser)
– With US vaccination numbers far behind, health officials are evaluating various possibilities for increasing the numbers. One is to halve the dose of the Modern vaccine to stretch supplies, a proposal the FDA should consider this week. But as the New York Times reports, another controversial proposal is in wide circulation, one that calls for the second dose to be postponed – the “booster” dose – so that more people can make the first. Three vaccines now in use around the world, from Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, ask people to receive a second dose about three or four weeks later, by Hill. But advocates say delaying that deadline would allow more people to get the first chance and acquire at least one measure of protection. Not everyone, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, agrees.
“I would not be in favor of that,” he said last week, and added on Sunday that the strategy “goes against science”, reports CNBC. There is insufficient data to support the notion that the plan is safe, says Fauci. But in a Washington Post In the article, two health officials argue that postponing the second injection makes sense. Cases are on the rise and supplies are limited, and something has to give, write Robert Wachter of the University of California at San Francisco and Ashish Jha of Brown University. Yes, the data is not complete, but what we have is “reassuring”, they write. “In a perfect world, there would be no payoffs. But if 2020 taught us something, it is that we don’t live in a perfect world.” The UK has taken the approach of delaying the second shot, Hill notes. About 4 million Americans have been vaccinated, well below the goal of more than 20 million so far. (Read more coronavirus vaccine stories.)